In Sinnoh
by Musicalmelodys
Summary: Articuno and Moltres spend a while in Sinnoh to get away from Zapdos, which by the end of it they can't decide whether to regret it or not.
1. Hearthome City

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Note: I'm also seeking a beta reader, please send me a message if you're willing to be one. : )

Second Note: I often have the habit of going over and over my chapters for mistakes, so do not be surprised if it's is updated every two to three weeks.

Articuno sat on a log in a forest clearing, staring cautiously at Hearthome City in the distance. As she spent most of her time in the quiet area around the SeaFoam Islands in Kanto, the city's noises which she could hear even from here, startled her. She had come to Sinnoh, as she had wanted to get away from Zapdos who had been bothering her. Articuno normally didn't mind talking to the other legendary pokemon, but Zapdos had a nasty habit of electrocuting any pokemon who disagreed with her.

She had then been persuaded by Moltres who had been in the vicinity, who was also currently on bad terms with Zapdos, to accompany her on a trip for awhile around various parts of Sinnoh. Being curious at what Sinnoh was like, she had agreed. They had then sneaked off while Zapdos was resting, who was probably tired after a one-sided discussion about which tasted better: Pokeblocks or Poffins. After first going to SnowPoint City to have their appearance changed to human-like by Uxie, they had then begun sight-seeing. Their first stop was at Hearthome City, as they had liked the sound of it.

However, the secondthey had arrived, Moltres had run off into the deeper parts of the forest, shouting something about smelling _**honey?**_ She couldn't stay here long though. The wild pokemon in the forest were getting suspicious about her, and out of the corner of her eyes she could see some of the local starlys eyeing her and hopping closer. Getting up, she quickly made her way onto the road.

[-A few minutes later-]

Moltres came walking into the clearing and sank wearily onto a stone. After following the scent of honey, she had stumbled upon a strange tree that was dripping in the stuff. She had curiously reached out a finger to the tree to taste the honey, and the next thing she knew she was surrounded by angry-looking Combees. She had escaped them by jumping into a river, much to her unhappiness, but she was now covered in stings and was soaking wet. _But_ w_here did Articuno go_? Moltres thought, looking around for the non-existent pokemon. _Oh well, I'll just dry off and then explore for a bit, _Moltresdecided.

_I'm regretting this already_, Articuno thought, standing in the midst of a crowd. Upon arriving in Hearthome City, she had discovered a few things:

The city was extremely noisy compared to the Seafoam Islands.

With so many people around her, she felt hot.

She needed to get somewhere cool, fast.

People kept on giving her strange looks every time they brushed past her, as her skin felt cold.

Looking around for the nearest place where she could get out of the heat, Articuno spotted a small building with a green roof which had a sign next to it saying: The Poffin House

_The Poffin House? A place where they made Poffins?_ Articuno wondered, walking towards the building. She had once come across a bag of Poffins that someone had dropped. She had quite enjoyed the taste.

_Ah, finally cool_, Articuno thought, upon entering the Poffin House. As a bonus, she had not earned any strange looks yet at her unusual appearance as everyone in the vicinity was intent on making their poffins.

Unfortunately, a short man wearing oversize sunglasses and holding a walking stick who came out of **nowhere** ruined it by appearing in front of her.

'Welcome, my dear lady to the Poffin House!' he said, shaking her hand. 'No doubt you are here to try and make some poffins for your beloved pokemon, but judging by your surprised expression this is no doubt your first time here, yes? Then come with me!' he exclaimed, dragging her over to a nearby poffin machine.

'Um, hi…' Articuno stammered, floundering in this unexpected meeting. _Sure she had expected someone to eventually try and talk to her, but in the very first place she visited? And she who had only just entered? How bad could her luck get?_ Articuno miserly thought.

'Oh I am so very sorry!' the man declared, all the time settling out berries on the table and fiddling around with the poffin machine. 'You must be confused as to who I am. Let me introduce myself: I am the Chairman of the Pokemon Fan Club, we who love pokemon! ' he happily said, sticking out his hand.

_There's fan clubs for pokemon?_, Articuno wondered, gingerly sticking out her hand and having it firmly shaken. _But perhaps this was a blessing in disguise after all. She could learn from this person not to be suspicious._

'Well now, the secret to making a good poffin is to first liquidize the berries, and then slowly stir them in the pan to avoid spilling. When your poffin solidifies, you then stir it faster to avoid it sticking and burning to the pan. Some good beginner berries to start with are Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst and Oran, as if you burn them, you can easily get some more.' the Chairman rattled off, as the timer went off and out emerged a poffin which as far as Articuno could see had no burned bits on it. 'Now you try it!' the Chairman said, waving a walking stick in his hand.

[-Two hours later-]

Articuno's first poffin making attempts were nothing short of disastrous. Not only had she burned them until the result was that they looked and tasted like bits of coal-she had almost broken a tooth nibbling one- she had also made the pan overflow several times, causing the hot poffin liquid to spill all over them. Luckily, their clothes were protected by the aprons and the Chairman was kind enough to repeat his instructions over and over again.

However, around noontime, she had made a bag full of poffins that were decent-enough tasting. 'Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for showing me how to make poffins,' Articuno gratefully said, bowing slightly.

'It's only my pleasure,' the Chairman replied, fanning himself with his hat as the weather had turned even hotter while they had been in the air-conditioned Poffin House. 'But if you don't mind me asking, you seem unfamiliar with this place. Are you visiting?' he questioned.

'I'm here sight-seeing with Moltres-I mean one of my friends,' Articuno hastily spoke, wondering where this conversation was going.

'In that case, would you mind if I took an hour or so to show you around?' the Chairman said, while placing his hat back onto his head. 'I've heard some rumours that a group of strange people who dress weirdly have been around lately.'

Slightly taken aback, Articuno did some quick thinking. _If I go with this person around the city, I'll be able to escape easily should something go amiss, and at the same time, search around for Moltres. If the rumours are true, knowing her personality, she'll get into trouble sooner or later._

'Sure,'Articuno cautiously answered, deciding that a wary attitude would be best.

'Excellent! In that case, I'll be sure to show you why Hearthome City is voted the number one place every year in Sinnoh to live!' The Chairman shouted, waving his walking stick in the air, and then grabbing Articuno's hand, tugging her in the direction of the centre of the city.

_My hand…Articuno thought _as she was dragged off once again.

Half-heartedly listening to the Chairman rambling on about the owner of Amity Square and also apparently the owner of a pokemon mansion, Articuno let her thoughts go back to Moltres. Moltres was normally hot-tempered and was not afraid of anything or anyone, whether it was a pokemon or a human. This meant that she was often getting into trouble. Normally Articuno or Zapdos would bail her out, but if Moltres was left alone too long, she would probably get into a fight and risk blowing their cover. Thinking of Zapdos, Articuno could only hope that by the time she and Moltres came back, Zapdos would just disdainfully ignore them.

By the time the sun was going to set, Articuno had had more than enough of the busy city. She then tactfully mentioned that she needed to go back soon.

'It's been a real pleasure showing you around, Miss Articuno. Now I also must be going, for I've been away from my own pokemon for far too long! Farewell now, and enjoy your sight-seeing!' the Chairman shouted, waving goodbye.

Making her way out of Hearthome City, Articuno then walked her way back to the relative quiet of the clearing, after making sure nobody was following her. _Well, today's been interesting_, Articuno mused as she climbed up a tree to sleep after shaking off the wild wrumples nesting in it and covering it in a comforting blanket of snow, causing the wild bug/grass pokemon to crawl/run away. _The only bad thing is that I didn't find Moltres. I wonder what she's doing now… _

That's all for my first chapter. Review please, and tell me which parts I'm doing right or wrong. Also, I will be slow in updating as I'm mostly busy, but I intend to continue this fanfic till it's finished.


	2. Moving On

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Note: Thank you to all who took their time to review my first chapter and helped point out my mistakes and good points. I should have probably included more plot in the first chapter… Anyway, I've amended some bits for more detail. I'm also trying to do a goofy and slightly childish personality for Moltres, so let me know how I'm doing. Italics are used in this chapter to emphasize on something. As for the rating, it's there just in case.

_What th_e- Articuno thought when she felt a ray of sunlight on her face. _Oh it's dawn already. _Articuno like all flying type pokemon, only slept with half their brain asleep, but due to the fact that she had been extremely worn out the previous day, she had been completely unaware of her surroundings. _I'll have to find a way to fix that, just in case someone tries to sneak up on me-huh?_

'WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON ME?' Articuno hollered, suddenly becoming unpleasantly aware that sometime during the previous night Moltres had snuck up on her, and was currently happily asleep on Articuno's back.

'Huh? It's dawn already?' Moltres yawned sleepily, ignoring Articuno's frantic efforts to buck her off.

'NEVER MIND ABOUT THAT, GET OFF ME RIGHT NOW.'

'But I still want to sleep…'

At that point, the local wild flying type pokemon decided to establish their territories by emitting loud squawks, which meant that Moltres decided that it was really not worthwhile staying on Articuno's back, especially if Articuno actually carried out her threat by sticking an icicle in Moltres's eye. 

While eating Articuno's poffins and some wild berries, Moltres idly asked Articuno what they were planning to do for today in Hearthome City.

Spitting out the bitter s of an Aguav berry, Articuno then replied, 'Well, we could go and view the Contest Hall before we go somewhere else.'

'The Contest Hall? Oh you mean, where trainers dress up their pokemon and compete to see who's better.'

'I wouldn't put it in those terms, but yes.'

'It's fine by me, since when we return Zapdos is probably still going to be angry with me, so I need some entertaining stories to amuse her.'

'You know, it's mostly your fault she's annoyed with you, since you complained when she came to visit you that it had been raining continuously.'

'But it had! For the past few weeks, my feathers have been completely soaked!'

'Still, you didn't need to tell her she was nuts for making it rain where plenty of fire and rock type pokemon live.'

'…'

'Never mind, just make sure when we get back you don't annoy her any further then you normally do,' Articuno sighed.

Getting up, Articuno walked over to Moltres and nudged her, causing a groan to be emitted from Moltres.

'So, are you ready to go or not?'

'Do I even have a choice?'

'Not really, as you'll just get into trouble if I leave you alone,' responded Articuno dryly, who was already turning to leave.

Moltres quickly got to her feet to follow Articuno, as she did not want a repeat of what had happened yesterday.

[-Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Hearthome City-]

Mars surveyed the surrounding area impatiently. She was waiting for her Goldbat to return and was becoming more annoyed by the second. Ever since Team Galactic's plan had been foiled at Mount Coronet, Cyrus had been busy sending out the commanders to gather funds for another of his plans, as he was determined to make sure that it would not fail this time. Unfortunately, this meant that Mars had to work a lot harder. A few minutes later, Mars spotted her Goldbat flying towards her. To her surprise, her Goldbat seemed agitated and kept flying around her head, but before she could think about it, Jupiter suddenly called her hand phone.

'Mars, where are you? We're supposed to be meeting of Nuclear Energy Funding, you're already ten minutes late!'

'Okay okay, I'll be right over.' With a sigh, Mars returned her Goldbat to its pokeball, and then began to walk towards the direction of where Jupiter and their potential client where waiting, deciding to wonder about her Goldbat's strange behaviour later.

'It's too noisy and crowded here,' Moltres grumbled as they entered the Contest Hall.

Articuno did not reply to Moltres, concentrating instead on where the entrance for the Normal Rank Beauty Contest was. Finding it, Articuno dragged Moltres over to a seat and then spent the next ten minutes ignoring Moltres whining. As the contestants walked in, Articuno watched them with interest. She was intrigued about the bonds between the pokemon and their trainers, about the pokemon trusting the trainer enough to be confident about avoiding messing up, or losing an important battle. Articuno was so intent on watching the contestants, that she was startled when Moltres re-entered the seat next to her.

'Where did you go?'

'Just went to see the portraits of previous winners of Contests.'

Articuno was not convinced and watched Moltres out of the corner of one eye. She was abruptly reminded of the slightly sadistic pranks that Moltres and Zapdos sometimes liked to pull on her and the other legendary pokemon when they got together.

Articuno watched as the announcer introduced the contestant's names and their pokemon, and then started the contest by beginning the visual part. Everything went smoothly until the dancing part, when the pokemon on the stage, a glameow, a pikachu, a bidoof and a starly, began to dance. The lead dancer, the glameow, suddenly stiffened in the centre of the stage, and then shot off the stage, running towards its trainer. A few seconds later, the centre of the stage exploded when a bunch of fireworks came shooting out through the wooden floor, causing the remaining pokemon to go berserk, causing mass confusion among the audience. Articuno whipped around to glare at Moltres, who had a guilty look on her face.

'_What did you do?' _Articuno hissed, nervously glancing around to make sure no one was over hearing this conservation.Fortunately, everyone else was busy being occupied by the pokemon who had been on stage. The glameow had landed on someone's head, resembling a furry quilfish clawing and spitting, while the pikachu was electrifying a small group of people. (Both Articuno and Moltres felt slightly nostalgic when they saw that.) The bidoof had somehow landed on a pole, and was clinging desperately to it, while the starly had fainted, being hit by a lone Catherine Wheel.

'I didn't do anything wrong,' Moltres said in a meek tone. 'I just found some crates of fireworks underneath the Contest Hall when I went exploring yesterday.'

'And you decided that _today_ it would be a good idea to set fire to them?'

'Well I was feeling bored.'

'You just had to do that, didn't you?'

'Hey, what do you mean by that?'

'What part of 'we're not to attract any attention' that I said before we set off did you not get?'

Moltres blinked at that. True, Articuno had said various things to her before they left Kanto, but she had been distracted by seeing a Volbeat and an Iluminse courting at the time. Suddenly becoming aware of Articuno glaring coldly at her, she quickly countered with another question.

'_You_ said that?'

'Were you even _listening_?'

'Um, never mind. Anyway, I think we better get going before they clean up the mess and start questioning people,' Moltres hastily replied, changing the subject and quickly getting up.

Articuno let out a loud sigh and reminded herself for what felt like the umpteenth time that she was not going to sink to Moltres's and Zapdos's level by starting arguments. No, it was a much better technique to glower in cold silence until they got the message and backed off.

'Hurry, we need to find an inconspicuous place.'

'Oh, _now_ you're the one who's acting sensible.'

Avoiding the thick crowd that had gathered outside the Contest Hall, Articuno and Moltres found a group of thick trees to hide in, and then changed back into their pokemon forms as Uxie had taught them to and flew off. Articuno had missed flying and would have enjoyed it, had she not been so annoyed at Moltres.

Unknown to both of them, someone was watching them go. 

Second chapter done. I'm also going to write Articuno and Moltres more as when they are as pokemon, even though it's fun imaging them as human form, I guess I ought to stick with their original shape. Feel free to tell me which parts you like/dislike, and I'll do my best to improve them.


End file.
